1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to disk drives, and in particular to a method of making disk drives using a frame array with a plurality of disk drive base portions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The typical hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) may be attached to a disk drive base of the HDA or incorporated with circuitry associated with a host device that the disk drive supports. The head disk assembly includes the disk drive base, a cover, at least one magnetic disk, a spindle motor for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly (HSA).
The spindle motor includes a spindle motor hub that is rotatably attached to the disk drive base. The spindle motor hub has an outer hub flange that supports a lowermost one of the disks. Additional disks may be stacked and separated with annular disk spacers that are disposed about the spindle motor hub. The spindle motor typically includes a spindle motor base that may be integrated with the disk drive base. A shaft is coupled to the spindle motor base and the spindle motor hub surrounds the shaft. The spindle motor hub may be rotatably coupled to the shaft, and therefore the spindle motor base, typically via a pair of bearing sets. A stator is positioned about the shaft and is attached to the spindle motor base. A magnet element is attached to the hub flange. The stator includes windings that selectively conduct current to create a magnetic field that interacts with the various poles of the magnet element. Such interaction results in forces applied to the spindle motor hub that tend to rotate the spindle motor hub and the attached disks.
The head stack assembly includes the actuator assembly, at least one head gimbal assembly (HGA), and a flex circuit cable assembly that are attached to the actuator assembly. A conventional “rotary” or “swing-type” actuator assembly typically comprises an actuator body, a pivot bearing cartridge, one or more actuator arms that extend from one side of the actuator body, and a coil portion that extends from an opposite side of the actuator body. The actuator body includes a bore and the pivot bearing cartridge engaged within the bore for allowing the actuator body to rotate between limited positions. The coil portion includes a coil that is configured to interact with one or more permanent magnets to form a voice coil motor.
At least one head gimbal assembly is distally attached to each of the actuator arms. A head gimbal assembly includes an air bearing slider with a transducer head. The voice coil motor is configured to allow the actuator assembly to be controllably rotated or pivoted so as to move the sliders with the transducer heads relative to the disks for reading and writing operations with respect to the tracks contained on the rotating disks. The printed circuit board assembly is disposed in electrical communication with the coil via the flex circuit cable assembly for providing a control current to energize the coil to create an electromagnetic field that interacts with the permanent magnets to controllably position the actuator assembly.
A topic of concern is the desire to reduce the overall disk drive size. Such disk drives may have a variety of applications such as in hand held or portable electronic devices. The exterior size and shape of the disk drive is often referred to as a “form factor”. Fabrication of such disk drives having reduced form factors has proven challenging. In this regard, the handling and assembly of the various disk drive components is difficult due to their relatively small size. Application of traditional disk drive fabrication techniques has proven to be inefficient with respect to mass production of such reduced form factor disk drives. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved method of making disk drives in comparison to the prior art.